Beards, Booze and Blues: The Hitchhikers' Guide

Earnshaw Strike Back

In all honesty the past week has been something of a non-event, pretty much cruising along with very little of note to bring to the foreground, Zizzy is settling into the rhythms of work at the Kynnersley Arms and the rest is pretty much it is business as usual. I have currently playing a Brit Jazz playlist I assembled on Spotify, which no doubt I will add bits and pieces too as I go along, currently I have playing “The Very Thought of You” composed by Ray Noble and performed by his Orchestra with the vocal refrain performed by Al Bowlly, one of the earliest examples of a British Crooner. I have tried to make the list an effective snapshot across the spectrum and it began quite linear in its presentation starting with Billy Cotton’s Band, going through Ken “Snakehips” Johnson- an artist I became aware of thanks to Stephen Poliakov’s drama Dancing on the Edge, Harry Roy and his infamous composition “My Girl’s Pussy”, Trumpet legend Nat Gonella, the blind pianist George Shearing who went on to record with Nat Cole and Peggy Lee, to the Trad Jazz boom of the 50s/60s and the modernist movement lead by Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Stan Tracey and Johnny Dankworth, up to the modern age of Jazz singers, fusion and Jazz-Hop.

Life at the Mytton is on its usual level where it seems Billy Bunter has been kicked out of Greyfriers and taken up bar work to pay the bills leading to Tom reviving the term “Cockology”, erm yes. I have been musing as to what to read next, Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 has been recommended but I am finding the syntax a bit odd which is probably down to the translation from German, I am also toying with Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton which is a cold war thriller featuring the character of Harry Palmer from the Ipcress File and the original Doctor Who novel Dark Horizons by J T Colgan, a rare example of a Who novel written by a woman, set in Viking times where the Doctor is mistaken for the Norse god Loki. We shall see which hooks me first, admittedly I could probably have the Doctor Who book and one of the others going at the same time.

Joe Loss and his Orchestra performing In the Mood is playing now and if we are honest it is a virtual note for note recreation of the Glenn Miller arrangement just without the signature Miller sound.

Sunday night I had a brief but worthwhile catch up with Pete and his father at the Thomas Botfield at Telford Town Centre, it was fun to catch up with the guys after a long period of absence. We each bought a round, my first drink was a pale beer by the Shrewsbury based Salopian Brewery called Symphony at 4.3%, it was quite a hoppy drink as are most Salopian beers with a fruity nose and I must admit the aftertaste was a little bittersweet. Next up was a beer called Battlefield though I missed the brewery name and strength and I finished off with a pint of Sharp’s Doom Bar at 4%. After we caught up I went to the Cinema and “Eddie the Eagle”, the biopic of the, frankly, rather crap British Ski Jumper. It was an entertaining film and considering the struggle young Eddie had it is quite amazing he even managed to get to the Olympics at all, so does it really matter if he finished last? I wonder if the British Milk Marketing board had a hand in the finance of the film as Eddie is seen drinking milk a hell of a lot. Hugh Jackman does a turn as Eddie’s unwilling coach, who is a bad tempered, drunken shadow of a man he once was… so basically he was playing Wolverine only without the claws or the X Men. Not a bad film and despite sharing the same director as Kickass and Kingsmen, the film tone could not be more different in that it is an uplifting family friendly film. There looks to be a few good movies advertised though quite why they have done a sequel to the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is beyond me, it looks just as awful as the other one. On the plus side I made some inquiries and it looks like Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis (sort of) Biopic “Miles Ahead” is going to get a screening at Telford Cineworld.

Now playing “Wee Dot” by the Ronnie Scott Boptet

Anything else to add? Not really, I finished listening to Volume 2 of the Big Finish recreations of the lost Avengers episodes. Sadly the last episode on the set “Dance with Death” is a rather lacklustre and rather dated affair with a rather obvious plot set in a dance school, though there is some humour at the end when a hotel porter gets the wrong idea as to why Steed is drilling a hole in a bathroom door… his reply of “there is a woman in there” only serves to make the situation worse. The villains’ MO doesn’t really stand to close scrutiny and it makes you wonder as to why he would stick to the same MO if he was only acquitted before due to lack of evidence.

And FinallyIt was reported in the Shrosphire Star last night that a Prison Van was involved in a crash with a cement lorry on the M54, Police have told the public to be vigilant and look out for four hardened criminals.

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2 thoughts on “Earnshaw Strike Back”

Just listening to Wee Dot on the porch with Mr. Swiss, who is still humming. My dad discovered Al Bowlly on a record once that he bought “down the lane” (petticoat lane for those not fromt he East End) and he loved it, much better than all those other singers he found. It was an EP and he played it all the time. He certainly was a crooner and that really brought back a good memory.